I. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to wireless communications, and more specifically to techniques for assigning resources in a wireless communication system.
II. Background
Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various communication services; for instance, voice, video, packet data, broadcast, and messaging services may be provided via such wireless communication systems. These systems may be multiple-access systems that are capable of supporting communication for multiple terminals by sharing available system resources. Examples of such multiple-access systems include Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) systems, Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) systems, Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) systems, and Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) systems.
In such a multiple-access system, a base station traditionally communicates with one or more user terminals on a forward link (“downlink”), and the terminals engage in return communication with the corresponding base station on a reverse link (“uplink”). This communication between a base station and a terminal can include, for example, the communication of data on one or more data channels and signaling on one or more control channels. Traditionally, the signaling communicated through the control channels is used to ensure correct and efficient operation of the communication system. For example, reverse link control channels can be used by the terminal to communicate channel quality indicators (CQI), requests (REQ), acknowledgements/negative acknowledgements (ACK/NACK), and other feedback to the base station. However, it has traditionally been difficult, particularly in communication systems with a large number of terminals communicating with each base station, to efficiently balance the scheduling of reverse link control channels that are assigned to and used by the terminals communicating with each base station. Because the reverse link control channels are used to ensure efficient operation of the communication system, balanced assignment and scheduling of control channels is necessary for optimal performance of the system. Thus, there exists an unmet need in the art for efficient control channel assignment in a wireless communication system.